(From Hemmings Classic Car, January 2006, by Pat Foster)
The other day, I was thinking about some of the great car designers who worked for independent car companies. But when it came to engineers who worked for the independents, the names were slower to rise to the surface. Thinking it might be easier to focus on one particular company, I cast my thoughts on Willys-Overland. Several names came to mind: the legendary Barney Roos, A.C. Sampietro who developed the overhead-cam Willys Six, and Clyde Paton, the former Packard engineer who developed the Aero Willys, one of the best independent cars of the 1950s. Then I remembered another great engineer you may never have heard of. I'd like to tell you about him.
Floyd Kishline enjoyed a terrific career working at Graham, Willys, Nash and American Motors. In a sense, one could say that Kishline, or "Kish" as his friends called him, had a big role helping to win WW II. That's because a few years before the war, he and Barney Roos worked on a project to redesign the Willys four-cylinder engine. Kishline and Roos transformed the unreliable underpowered little four-cylinder into the mighty Go-Devil engine that powered the wartime Jeep.
Floyd Foster Kishline was born on a farm near Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1894. After high school, he went to work as a machinist at the Cushman Motor Company, taking night classes at the University of Nebraska, as well as correspondence courses. In 1913, he moved to Detroit, holding engineering positions at the King and Saxon Motor Companies before getting a civilian engineering job in the Army Motor Transport Corps Testing Laboratory at Camp Holabird, Maryland. In 1918 he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and continued testing military trucks at Camp Holabird. Upon receiving an honorable discharge in 1919, he went to work for Graham Brothers Truck, which was producing trucks for Dodge Brothers. After leaving for a short time, Kishline returned to Graham in 1926. When Graham-Paige was created, he moved there.
Although Kish was a recognized authority on engine lubrication, lubricants and fuels, his most famous project at Graham-Paige was his development of the Graham supercharger. The blower boosted the Graham's output from 95hp to 135hp, with a 20 percent increase in torque. The car's top speed exceeded 90 mph, and the engine exhibited excellent acceleration and greater smoothness. Introduced in 1934, the Graham had the first supercharger offered on a moderately priced car; previously only Duesenberg and other high-end machines had offered them. Kishline was chief engineer at Graham in 1936 and was involved in the development of the Graham-Bradley tractor marketed by Sears.
In May 1938, Kish joined Willys-Overland to work on a project to modernize the Willys four-cylinder engine. The 134-cu.in. Willys four-cylinder had a very poor reputation; it was noisy, underpowered and unreliable. The company, struggling to rebuild itself after coming out of bankruptcy, was betting its future on a line of low-priced small cars powered by that four-cylinder engine. Management stressed to Chief Engineer Barney Roos the importance of redesigning the engine for reliability and power.
Reporting directly to Roos, Kishline became assistant engineer in charge of the research laboratory and road testing, with about 40 people engaged in engine development work. There wasn't enough funding for a completely new engine but the budget was sufficient to do substantial re-engineering. After evaluating the engine's weaknesses, a program of design and testing was laid out.
Bearing life and piston-ring durability were unsatisfactory. Other weak points included oil leaks, head-gasket life, excessive vibration, excessive noise, and lack of ventilation. To fix these problems, much upgrading was required. The cylinder block was redesigned to extend the water jackets down the full length of the cylinder barrels. Aluminum pistons with reduced reciprocating weight were fitted, along with improved rings, bearings and seals. A counterbalance crank was developed to reduce bearing loads and improve smoothness. The cylinder head was redesigned with a new combustion chamber that permitted higher compression. New cylinder-head hold-down studs were employed to eliminate gasket failure. The camshaft was redesigned for increased valve lift, reduced noise and greater high-speed durability. A new type of timing chain was fitted to eliminate vibration. Much work went into preventing valve-seat burning, and improving breathing and cooling. The engine's 48hp was deemed too low, so a goal was set of boosting it to 60hp.
Before the program, the engine could operate just a few hours at its maximum horsepower before failing. After the redesign, the engine could be run at the max for 50 hours or more without failure. Output improved to 63hp at 4,000 rpm, and the engine was smoother and quieter. It was a big selling feature of Willys' 1940 models.
Later, when the military asked automakers to come up with prototypes of a reconnaissance car, Ford, American Bantam and Willys submitted test vehicles. Although all three vehicles were good designs, the little Willys performed the best because it had the most powerful engine. Of course, it was the engine Roos and Kishline developed. The Willys design became the standard for what became known as the Jeep.
Nash-Kelvinator hired Kishline in 1939 as assistant chief engineer. From then until retirement in 1959, Kish worked on a variety of projects and became chief engineer in Kenosha in 1941. Interestingly, one of his early-1950s projects at Nash was the development of a supercharger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Born to John Foster Kichline (d. 1945) and Anna Catherine Shafer, Floyd Foster married Carrie Louise Miller on February 15, 1919 in Washington, DC. They had three boys; one died in infancy. Carrie died in her youth, and some years later he married a second time to Saimie Augusta Tickanen, who was raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They had two children, Evelyn and Samuel, both now deceased.
The Kishlines' Kenosha residence was at 319 69th Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Floyd K. Kishline, 74, 5929 E. Surrey Dr., Cave Creek, Ariz., retired chief engineer of American Motors Corp., died at Maryvale Hospital, Phoenix following a short illness. Mr. Kishline was born in Lincoln, Neb., on July 18, 1894, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Kishline. He spent his early life and attended schools there. He attended night school at the University of Nebraska for two years. In 1920 he married Miss Carrie Miller in Washington, D. C., who preceded in death in 1925. On Nov. 17, 1930, he married Miss Saimie Tickanen in Toledo, O. In 1939 he came to Kenosha where he was employed as chief engineer at AMC for 20 years until his retirement on July 31, 1959. Following his retirement he moved to Merriweather, Mich., where he resided until 1967 when he moved to Cave Creek, Ariz. Mr. Kishline was a veteran of World War I, serving with the U. S. Army Motor Transport. He was a member of Phoenix Elks Lodge 335, Cave Creek Legion Post 34, and the 40 et 8 group of Cave Creek. He was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers for 35 years. Survivors besides his wife were three sons, F. Richard, Kenosha; A. Robert, Dearborn Heights, Mich.; and Major Samuel Kishline with the Air Force at Fairfax, Va.; a daughter, Mrs. Richard Koontz, Evansville, Ind.; and 11 grandchildren.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Condensed from Mac's Motor City Garage, Nov. 28, 2022:)
Secrets of the 1934-41 Graham Supercharger
With clever engineering, Graham successfully introduced supercharging to the mid-priced field and built more supercharged cars than anyone in the 1930s.
Brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham were successful entrepreneurs in a wide range of enterprises, from agriculture to glass to auto manufacturing—today we would call them venture capitalists. After selling their Graham Brothers Truck Company to Dodge Brothers and departing from Dodge senior management, they immediately reentered the auto industy in 1927, acquiring the Paige-Detroit Company and renaming it Graham-Paige. And from the beginning, the brothers decided the new brand would need special features to stand out among the vast herd of independent automakers.
One area where Graham chose to stand apart was in styling. Amos Northup was commissioned to design the trend-setting 1932 Graham Blue Streak and the striking sharknose 1938 Graham. For mechanical innovation, the brothers turned to their veteran assistant chief engineer, Floyd K. Kishline, who was working on one of the hot new trends in the auto industry at that moment: supercharging.
It so happened that Kishline was a friend of supercharger pioneer Louis Switzer, and he freely adopted the same general centrifugal blower layout Switzer-Cummins produced for Duesenberg and Auburn. But unlike the systems engineered for these more expensive cars, the Graham setup was cleverly engineered for bare minimum cost. Graham's cars were then priced in the $750-$1330 range, roughly in Oldsmobile territory.
Instead of costly precision ball bearings, Kishline used plain bushings to support the blower shaft, carefully sorting out their lubrication. He devised a novel cone worm gearbox to drive the blower from the back of the water pump, using a pair of flexible couplings to dampen torsional vibrations. In place of the usual (and expensive) machined blower impeller, he worked with Bohn Aluminum and Brass of Detroit to develop a low-cost cast aluminum impeller in a special alloy,saving untold dollars.
Delayed for a time by poor economic conditions, Kishline's ingenious blower setup was first used on the 1934 Supercharged Custom Eight
A very conventional L-head straight eight that displaced 265.4 cubic inches, it managed to produce 135 hp at 4,000 rpm as the supercharger both lifted and extended the power range. (Its slightly smaller, normally aspirated sibling was rated at 95 hp at 3400 rpm.) This was accomplished with a conservative 3.5 psi of boost, with the 7.5-inch impeller turning at 5.75 times engine speed or 23,000 rpm. While the blower added around $170 to the list price, the Supercharged Custom Eight was capable of nearly 90 mph.
When the straight eight was dropped for 1937, the supercharger assembly was transplanted to the company's L-head straight six engines. This required relocating the unit from the right side of the engine to the left and adding a belt drive, but otherwise the systems are similar. By this time Kishline was promoted to chief engineer, and he and his staff adapted the blower to both the 199.1 CID and 217.8 CID sixes. They were good for 106 hp and 116 hp, respectively. However, for 1938 the smaller six was discontinued.
In its ultimate 1941 tune, the Graham supercharged six was rated at 124 hp at 4,000 rpm, still from the same 217.6 cubic inches, with 185 lb-ft of torque at 2400 rpm. (That works out to 128 psi BMEP, very respectable for a prewar flathead six.) In its final appearance it powered the ill-conceived, Cord-bodied Graham Hollywood. While the final total is difficult to nail down with any precision, historians agree that in the years before World War II, Graham-Paige surely built more supercharged automobiles than anyone in the United States.
The other day, I was thinking about some of the great car designers who worked for independent car companies. But when it came to engineers who worked for the independents, the names were slower to rise to the surface. Thinking it might be easier to focus on one particular company, I cast my thoughts on Willys-Overland. Several names came to mind: the legendary Barney Roos, A.C. Sampietro who developed the overhead-cam Willys Six, and Clyde Paton, the former Packard engineer who developed the Aero Willys, one of the best independent cars of the 1950s. Then I remembered another great engineer you may never have heard of. I'd like to tell you about him.
Floyd Kishline enjoyed a terrific career working at Graham, Willys, Nash and American Motors. In a sense, one could say that Kishline, or "Kish" as his friends called him, had a big role helping to win WW II. That's because a few years before the war, he and Barney Roos worked on a project to redesign the Willys four-cylinder engine. Kishline and Roos transformed the unreliable underpowered little four-cylinder into the mighty Go-Devil engine that powered the wartime Jeep.
Floyd Foster Kishline was born on a farm near Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1894. After high school, he went to work as a machinist at the Cushman Motor Company, taking night classes at the University of Nebraska, as well as correspondence courses. In 1913, he moved to Detroit, holding engineering positions at the King and Saxon Motor Companies before getting a civilian engineering job in the Army Motor Transport Corps Testing Laboratory at Camp Holabird, Maryland. In 1918 he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and continued testing military trucks at Camp Holabird. Upon receiving an honorable discharge in 1919, he went to work for Graham Brothers Truck, which was producing trucks for Dodge Brothers. After leaving for a short time, Kishline returned to Graham in 1926. When Graham-Paige was created, he moved there.
Although Kish was a recognized authority on engine lubrication, lubricants and fuels, his most famous project at Graham-Paige was his development of the Graham supercharger. The blower boosted the Graham's output from 95hp to 135hp, with a 20 percent increase in torque. The car's top speed exceeded 90 mph, and the engine exhibited excellent acceleration and greater smoothness. Introduced in 1934, the Graham had the first supercharger offered on a moderately priced car; previously only Duesenberg and other high-end machines had offered them. Kishline was chief engineer at Graham in 1936 and was involved in the development of the Graham-Bradley tractor marketed by Sears.
In May 1938, Kish joined Willys-Overland to work on a project to modernize the Willys four-cylinder engine. The 134-cu.in. Willys four-cylinder had a very poor reputation; it was noisy, underpowered and unreliable. The company, struggling to rebuild itself after coming out of bankruptcy, was betting its future on a line of low-priced small cars powered by that four-cylinder engine. Management stressed to Chief Engineer Barney Roos the importance of redesigning the engine for reliability and power.
Reporting directly to Roos, Kishline became assistant engineer in charge of the research laboratory and road testing, with about 40 people engaged in engine development work. There wasn't enough funding for a completely new engine but the budget was sufficient to do substantial re-engineering. After evaluating the engine's weaknesses, a program of design and testing was laid out.
Bearing life and piston-ring durability were unsatisfactory. Other weak points included oil leaks, head-gasket life, excessive vibration, excessive noise, and lack of ventilation. To fix these problems, much upgrading was required. The cylinder block was redesigned to extend the water jackets down the full length of the cylinder barrels. Aluminum pistons with reduced reciprocating weight were fitted, along with improved rings, bearings and seals. A counterbalance crank was developed to reduce bearing loads and improve smoothness. The cylinder head was redesigned with a new combustion chamber that permitted higher compression. New cylinder-head hold-down studs were employed to eliminate gasket failure. The camshaft was redesigned for increased valve lift, reduced noise and greater high-speed durability. A new type of timing chain was fitted to eliminate vibration. Much work went into preventing valve-seat burning, and improving breathing and cooling. The engine's 48hp was deemed too low, so a goal was set of boosting it to 60hp.
Before the program, the engine could operate just a few hours at its maximum horsepower before failing. After the redesign, the engine could be run at the max for 50 hours or more without failure. Output improved to 63hp at 4,000 rpm, and the engine was smoother and quieter. It was a big selling feature of Willys' 1940 models.
Later, when the military asked automakers to come up with prototypes of a reconnaissance car, Ford, American Bantam and Willys submitted test vehicles. Although all three vehicles were good designs, the little Willys performed the best because it had the most powerful engine. Of course, it was the engine Roos and Kishline developed. The Willys design became the standard for what became known as the Jeep.
Nash-Kelvinator hired Kishline in 1939 as assistant chief engineer. From then until retirement in 1959, Kish worked on a variety of projects and became chief engineer in Kenosha in 1941. Interestingly, one of his early-1950s projects at Nash was the development of a supercharger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Born to John Foster Kichline (d. 1945) and Anna Catherine Shafer, Floyd Foster married Carrie Louise Miller on February 15, 1919 in Washington, DC. They had three boys; one died in infancy. Carrie died in her youth, and some years later he married a second time to Saimie Augusta Tickanen, who was raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They had two children, Evelyn and Samuel, both now deceased.
The Kishlines' Kenosha residence was at 319 69th Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Floyd K. Kishline, 74, 5929 E. Surrey Dr., Cave Creek, Ariz., retired chief engineer of American Motors Corp., died at Maryvale Hospital, Phoenix following a short illness. Mr. Kishline was born in Lincoln, Neb., on July 18, 1894, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Kishline. He spent his early life and attended schools there. He attended night school at the University of Nebraska for two years. In 1920 he married Miss Carrie Miller in Washington, D. C., who preceded in death in 1925. On Nov. 17, 1930, he married Miss Saimie Tickanen in Toledo, O. In 1939 he came to Kenosha where he was employed as chief engineer at AMC for 20 years until his retirement on July 31, 1959. Following his retirement he moved to Merriweather, Mich., where he resided until 1967 when he moved to Cave Creek, Ariz. Mr. Kishline was a veteran of World War I, serving with the U. S. Army Motor Transport. He was a member of Phoenix Elks Lodge 335, Cave Creek Legion Post 34, and the 40 et 8 group of Cave Creek. He was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers for 35 years. Survivors besides his wife were three sons, F. Richard, Kenosha; A. Robert, Dearborn Heights, Mich.; and Major Samuel Kishline with the Air Force at Fairfax, Va.; a daughter, Mrs. Richard Koontz, Evansville, Ind.; and 11 grandchildren.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Condensed from Mac's Motor City Garage, Nov. 28, 2022:)
Secrets of the 1934-41 Graham Supercharger
With clever engineering, Graham successfully introduced supercharging to the mid-priced field and built more supercharged cars than anyone in the 1930s.
Brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham were successful entrepreneurs in a wide range of enterprises, from agriculture to glass to auto manufacturing—today we would call them venture capitalists. After selling their Graham Brothers Truck Company to Dodge Brothers and departing from Dodge senior management, they immediately reentered the auto industy in 1927, acquiring the Paige-Detroit Company and renaming it Graham-Paige. And from the beginning, the brothers decided the new brand would need special features to stand out among the vast herd of independent automakers.
One area where Graham chose to stand apart was in styling. Amos Northup was commissioned to design the trend-setting 1932 Graham Blue Streak and the striking sharknose 1938 Graham. For mechanical innovation, the brothers turned to their veteran assistant chief engineer, Floyd K. Kishline, who was working on one of the hot new trends in the auto industry at that moment: supercharging.
It so happened that Kishline was a friend of supercharger pioneer Louis Switzer, and he freely adopted the same general centrifugal blower layout Switzer-Cummins produced for Duesenberg and Auburn. But unlike the systems engineered for these more expensive cars, the Graham setup was cleverly engineered for bare minimum cost. Graham's cars were then priced in the $750-$1330 range, roughly in Oldsmobile territory.
Instead of costly precision ball bearings, Kishline used plain bushings to support the blower shaft, carefully sorting out their lubrication. He devised a novel cone worm gearbox to drive the blower from the back of the water pump, using a pair of flexible couplings to dampen torsional vibrations. In place of the usual (and expensive) machined blower impeller, he worked with Bohn Aluminum and Brass of Detroit to develop a low-cost cast aluminum impeller in a special alloy,saving untold dollars.
Delayed for a time by poor economic conditions, Kishline's ingenious blower setup was first used on the 1934 Supercharged Custom Eight
A very conventional L-head straight eight that displaced 265.4 cubic inches, it managed to produce 135 hp at 4,000 rpm as the supercharger both lifted and extended the power range. (Its slightly smaller, normally aspirated sibling was rated at 95 hp at 3400 rpm.) This was accomplished with a conservative 3.5 psi of boost, with the 7.5-inch impeller turning at 5.75 times engine speed or 23,000 rpm. While the blower added around $170 to the list price, the Supercharged Custom Eight was capable of nearly 90 mph.
When the straight eight was dropped for 1937, the supercharger assembly was transplanted to the company's L-head straight six engines. This required relocating the unit from the right side of the engine to the left and adding a belt drive, but otherwise the systems are similar. By this time Kishline was promoted to chief engineer, and he and his staff adapted the blower to both the 199.1 CID and 217.8 CID sixes. They were good for 106 hp and 116 hp, respectively. However, for 1938 the smaller six was discontinued.
In its ultimate 1941 tune, the Graham supercharged six was rated at 124 hp at 4,000 rpm, still from the same 217.6 cubic inches, with 185 lb-ft of torque at 2400 rpm. (That works out to 128 psi BMEP, very respectable for a prewar flathead six.) In its final appearance it powered the ill-conceived, Cord-bodied Graham Hollywood. While the final total is difficult to nail down with any precision, historians agree that in the years before World War II, Graham-Paige surely built more supercharged automobiles than anyone in the United States.
(From Hemmings Classic Car, January 2006, by Pat Foster)
The other day, I was thinking about some of the great car designers who worked for independent car companies. But when it came to engineers who worked for the independents, the names were slower to rise to the surface. Thinking it might be easier to focus on one particular company, I cast my thoughts on Willys-Overland. Several names came to mind: the legendary Barney Roos, A.C. Sampietro who developed the overhead-cam Willys Six, and Clyde Paton, the former Packard engineer who developed the Aero Willys, one of the best independent cars of the 1950s. Then I remembered another great engineer you may never have heard of. I'd like to tell you about him.
Floyd Kishline enjoyed a terrific career working at Graham, Willys, Nash and American Motors. In a sense, one could say that Kishline, or "Kish" as his friends called him, had a big role helping to win WW II. That's because a few years before the war, he and Barney Roos worked on a project to redesign the Willys four-cylinder engine. Kishline and Roos transformed the unreliable underpowered little four-cylinder into the mighty Go-Devil engine that powered the wartime Jeep.
Floyd Foster Kishline was born on a farm near Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1894. After high school, he went to work as a machinist at the Cushman Motor Company, taking night classes at the University of Nebraska, as well as correspondence courses. In 1913, he moved to Detroit, holding engineering positions at the King and Saxon Motor Companies before getting a civilian engineering job in the Army Motor Transport Corps Testing Laboratory at Camp Holabird, Maryland. In 1918 he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and continued testing military trucks at Camp Holabird. Upon receiving an honorable discharge in 1919, he went to work for Graham Brothers Truck, which was producing trucks for Dodge Brothers. After leaving for a short time, Kishline returned to Graham in 1926. When Graham-Paige was created, he moved there.
Although Kish was a recognized authority on engine lubrication, lubricants and fuels, his most famous project at Graham-Paige was his development of the Graham supercharger. The blower boosted the Graham's output from 95hp to 135hp, with a 20 percent increase in torque. The car's top speed exceeded 90 mph, and the engine exhibited excellent acceleration and greater smoothness. Introduced in 1934, the Graham had the first supercharger offered on a moderately priced car; previously only Duesenberg and other high-end machines had offered them. Kishline was chief engineer at Graham in 1936 and was involved in the development of the Graham-Bradley tractor marketed by Sears.
In May 1938, Kish joined Willys-Overland to work on a project to modernize the Willys four-cylinder engine. The 134-cu.in. Willys four-cylinder had a very poor reputation; it was noisy, underpowered and unreliable. The company, struggling to rebuild itself after coming out of bankruptcy, was betting its future on a line of low-priced small cars powered by that four-cylinder engine. Management stressed to Chief Engineer Barney Roos the importance of redesigning the engine for reliability and power.
Reporting directly to Roos, Kishline became assistant engineer in charge of the research laboratory and road testing, with about 40 people engaged in engine development work. There wasn't enough funding for a completely new engine but the budget was sufficient to do substantial re-engineering. After evaluating the engine's weaknesses, a program of design and testing was laid out.
Bearing life and piston-ring durability were unsatisfactory. Other weak points included oil leaks, head-gasket life, excessive vibration, excessive noise, and lack of ventilation. To fix these problems, much upgrading was required. The cylinder block was redesigned to extend the water jackets down the full length of the cylinder barrels. Aluminum pistons with reduced reciprocating weight were fitted, along with improved rings, bearings and seals. A counterbalance crank was developed to reduce bearing loads and improve smoothness. The cylinder head was redesigned with a new combustion chamber that permitted higher compression. New cylinder-head hold-down studs were employed to eliminate gasket failure. The camshaft was redesigned for increased valve lift, reduced noise and greater high-speed durability. A new type of timing chain was fitted to eliminate vibration. Much work went into preventing valve-seat burning, and improving breathing and cooling. The engine's 48hp was deemed too low, so a goal was set of boosting it to 60hp.
Before the program, the engine could operate just a few hours at its maximum horsepower before failing. After the redesign, the engine could be run at the max for 50 hours or more without failure. Output improved to 63hp at 4,000 rpm, and the engine was smoother and quieter. It was a big selling feature of Willys' 1940 models.
Later, when the military asked automakers to come up with prototypes of a reconnaissance car, Ford, American Bantam and Willys submitted test vehicles. Although all three vehicles were good designs, the little Willys performed the best because it had the most powerful engine. Of course, it was the engine Roos and Kishline developed. The Willys design became the standard for what became known as the Jeep.
Nash-Kelvinator hired Kishline in 1939 as assistant chief engineer. From then until retirement in 1959, Kish worked on a variety of projects and became chief engineer in Kenosha in 1941. Interestingly, one of his early-1950s projects at Nash was the development of a supercharger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Born to John Foster Kichline (d. 1945) and Anna Catherine Shafer, Floyd Foster married Carrie Louise Miller on February 15, 1919 in Washington, DC. They had three boys; one died in infancy. Carrie died in her youth, and some years later he married a second time to Saimie Augusta Tickanen, who was raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They had two children, Evelyn and Samuel, both now deceased.
The Kishlines' Kenosha residence was at 319 69th Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Floyd K. Kishline, 74, 5929 E. Surrey Dr., Cave Creek, Ariz., retired chief engineer of American Motors Corp., died at Maryvale Hospital, Phoenix following a short illness. Mr. Kishline was born in Lincoln, Neb., on July 18, 1894, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Kishline. He spent his early life and attended schools there. He attended night school at the University of Nebraska for two years. In 1920 he married Miss Carrie Miller in Washington, D. C., who preceded in death in 1925. On Nov. 17, 1930, he married Miss Saimie Tickanen in Toledo, O. In 1939 he came to Kenosha where he was employed as chief engineer at AMC for 20 years until his retirement on July 31, 1959. Following his retirement he moved to Merriweather, Mich., where he resided until 1967 when he moved to Cave Creek, Ariz. Mr. Kishline was a veteran of World War I, serving with the U. S. Army Motor Transport. He was a member of Phoenix Elks Lodge 335, Cave Creek Legion Post 34, and the 40 et 8 group of Cave Creek. He was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers for 35 years. Survivors besides his wife were three sons, F. Richard, Kenosha; A. Robert, Dearborn Heights, Mich.; and Major Samuel Kishline with the Air Force at Fairfax, Va.; a daughter, Mrs. Richard Koontz, Evansville, Ind.; and 11 grandchildren.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Condensed from Mac's Motor City Garage, Nov. 28, 2022:)
Secrets of the 1934-41 Graham Supercharger
With clever engineering, Graham successfully introduced supercharging to the mid-priced field and built more supercharged cars than anyone in the 1930s.
Brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham were successful entrepreneurs in a wide range of enterprises, from agriculture to glass to auto manufacturing—today we would call them venture capitalists. After selling their Graham Brothers Truck Company to Dodge Brothers and departing from Dodge senior management, they immediately reentered the auto industy in 1927, acquiring the Paige-Detroit Company and renaming it Graham-Paige. And from the beginning, the brothers decided the new brand would need special features to stand out among the vast herd of independent automakers.
One area where Graham chose to stand apart was in styling. Amos Northup was commissioned to design the trend-setting 1932 Graham Blue Streak and the striking sharknose 1938 Graham. For mechanical innovation, the brothers turned to their veteran assistant chief engineer, Floyd K. Kishline, who was working on one of the hot new trends in the auto industry at that moment: supercharging.
It so happened that Kishline was a friend of supercharger pioneer Louis Switzer, and he freely adopted the same general centrifugal blower layout Switzer-Cummins produced for Duesenberg and Auburn. But unlike the systems engineered for these more expensive cars, the Graham setup was cleverly engineered for bare minimum cost. Graham's cars were then priced in the $750-$1330 range, roughly in Oldsmobile territory.
Instead of costly precision ball bearings, Kishline used plain bushings to support the blower shaft, carefully sorting out their lubrication. He devised a novel cone worm gearbox to drive the blower from the back of the water pump, using a pair of flexible couplings to dampen torsional vibrations. In place of the usual (and expensive) machined blower impeller, he worked with Bohn Aluminum and Brass of Detroit to develop a low-cost cast aluminum impeller in a special alloy,saving untold dollars.
Delayed for a time by poor economic conditions, Kishline's ingenious blower setup was first used on the 1934 Supercharged Custom Eight
A very conventional L-head straight eight that displaced 265.4 cubic inches, it managed to produce 135 hp at 4,000 rpm as the supercharger both lifted and extended the power range. (Its slightly smaller, normally aspirated sibling was rated at 95 hp at 3400 rpm.) This was accomplished with a conservative 3.5 psi of boost, with the 7.5-inch impeller turning at 5.75 times engine speed or 23,000 rpm. While the blower added around $170 to the list price, the Supercharged Custom Eight was capable of nearly 90 mph.
When the straight eight was dropped for 1937, the supercharger assembly was transplanted to the company's L-head straight six engines. This required relocating the unit from the right side of the engine to the left and adding a belt drive, but otherwise the systems are similar. By this time Kishline was promoted to chief engineer, and he and his staff adapted the blower to both the 199.1 CID and 217.8 CID sixes. They were good for 106 hp and 116 hp, respectively. However, for 1938 the smaller six was discontinued.
In its ultimate 1941 tune, the Graham supercharged six was rated at 124 hp at 4,000 rpm, still from the same 217.6 cubic inches, with 185 lb-ft of torque at 2400 rpm. (That works out to 128 psi BMEP, very respectable for a prewar flathead six.) In its final appearance it powered the ill-conceived, Cord-bodied Graham Hollywood. While the final total is difficult to nail down with any precision, historians agree that in the years before World War II, Graham-Paige surely built more supercharged automobiles than anyone in the United States.
The other day, I was thinking about some of the great car designers who worked for independent car companies. But when it came to engineers who worked for the independents, the names were slower to rise to the surface. Thinking it might be easier to focus on one particular company, I cast my thoughts on Willys-Overland. Several names came to mind: the legendary Barney Roos, A.C. Sampietro who developed the overhead-cam Willys Six, and Clyde Paton, the former Packard engineer who developed the Aero Willys, one of the best independent cars of the 1950s. Then I remembered another great engineer you may never have heard of. I'd like to tell you about him.
Floyd Kishline enjoyed a terrific career working at Graham, Willys, Nash and American Motors. In a sense, one could say that Kishline, or "Kish" as his friends called him, had a big role helping to win WW II. That's because a few years before the war, he and Barney Roos worked on a project to redesign the Willys four-cylinder engine. Kishline and Roos transformed the unreliable underpowered little four-cylinder into the mighty Go-Devil engine that powered the wartime Jeep.
Floyd Foster Kishline was born on a farm near Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1894. After high school, he went to work as a machinist at the Cushman Motor Company, taking night classes at the University of Nebraska, as well as correspondence courses. In 1913, he moved to Detroit, holding engineering positions at the King and Saxon Motor Companies before getting a civilian engineering job in the Army Motor Transport Corps Testing Laboratory at Camp Holabird, Maryland. In 1918 he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and continued testing military trucks at Camp Holabird. Upon receiving an honorable discharge in 1919, he went to work for Graham Brothers Truck, which was producing trucks for Dodge Brothers. After leaving for a short time, Kishline returned to Graham in 1926. When Graham-Paige was created, he moved there.
Although Kish was a recognized authority on engine lubrication, lubricants and fuels, his most famous project at Graham-Paige was his development of the Graham supercharger. The blower boosted the Graham's output from 95hp to 135hp, with a 20 percent increase in torque. The car's top speed exceeded 90 mph, and the engine exhibited excellent acceleration and greater smoothness. Introduced in 1934, the Graham had the first supercharger offered on a moderately priced car; previously only Duesenberg and other high-end machines had offered them. Kishline was chief engineer at Graham in 1936 and was involved in the development of the Graham-Bradley tractor marketed by Sears.
In May 1938, Kish joined Willys-Overland to work on a project to modernize the Willys four-cylinder engine. The 134-cu.in. Willys four-cylinder had a very poor reputation; it was noisy, underpowered and unreliable. The company, struggling to rebuild itself after coming out of bankruptcy, was betting its future on a line of low-priced small cars powered by that four-cylinder engine. Management stressed to Chief Engineer Barney Roos the importance of redesigning the engine for reliability and power.
Reporting directly to Roos, Kishline became assistant engineer in charge of the research laboratory and road testing, with about 40 people engaged in engine development work. There wasn't enough funding for a completely new engine but the budget was sufficient to do substantial re-engineering. After evaluating the engine's weaknesses, a program of design and testing was laid out.
Bearing life and piston-ring durability were unsatisfactory. Other weak points included oil leaks, head-gasket life, excessive vibration, excessive noise, and lack of ventilation. To fix these problems, much upgrading was required. The cylinder block was redesigned to extend the water jackets down the full length of the cylinder barrels. Aluminum pistons with reduced reciprocating weight were fitted, along with improved rings, bearings and seals. A counterbalance crank was developed to reduce bearing loads and improve smoothness. The cylinder head was redesigned with a new combustion chamber that permitted higher compression. New cylinder-head hold-down studs were employed to eliminate gasket failure. The camshaft was redesigned for increased valve lift, reduced noise and greater high-speed durability. A new type of timing chain was fitted to eliminate vibration. Much work went into preventing valve-seat burning, and improving breathing and cooling. The engine's 48hp was deemed too low, so a goal was set of boosting it to 60hp.
Before the program, the engine could operate just a few hours at its maximum horsepower before failing. After the redesign, the engine could be run at the max for 50 hours or more without failure. Output improved to 63hp at 4,000 rpm, and the engine was smoother and quieter. It was a big selling feature of Willys' 1940 models.
Later, when the military asked automakers to come up with prototypes of a reconnaissance car, Ford, American Bantam and Willys submitted test vehicles. Although all three vehicles were good designs, the little Willys performed the best because it had the most powerful engine. Of course, it was the engine Roos and Kishline developed. The Willys design became the standard for what became known as the Jeep.
Nash-Kelvinator hired Kishline in 1939 as assistant chief engineer. From then until retirement in 1959, Kish worked on a variety of projects and became chief engineer in Kenosha in 1941. Interestingly, one of his early-1950s projects at Nash was the development of a supercharger.
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Born to John Foster Kichline (d. 1945) and Anna Catherine Shafer, Floyd Foster married Carrie Louise Miller on February 15, 1919 in Washington, DC. They had three boys; one died in infancy. Carrie died in her youth, and some years later he married a second time to Saimie Augusta Tickanen, who was raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They had two children, Evelyn and Samuel, both now deceased.
The Kishlines' Kenosha residence was at 319 69th Street.
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Floyd K. Kishline, 74, 5929 E. Surrey Dr., Cave Creek, Ariz., retired chief engineer of American Motors Corp., died at Maryvale Hospital, Phoenix following a short illness. Mr. Kishline was born in Lincoln, Neb., on July 18, 1894, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Kishline. He spent his early life and attended schools there. He attended night school at the University of Nebraska for two years. In 1920 he married Miss Carrie Miller in Washington, D. C., who preceded in death in 1925. On Nov. 17, 1930, he married Miss Saimie Tickanen in Toledo, O. In 1939 he came to Kenosha where he was employed as chief engineer at AMC for 20 years until his retirement on July 31, 1959. Following his retirement he moved to Merriweather, Mich., where he resided until 1967 when he moved to Cave Creek, Ariz. Mr. Kishline was a veteran of World War I, serving with the U. S. Army Motor Transport. He was a member of Phoenix Elks Lodge 335, Cave Creek Legion Post 34, and the 40 et 8 group of Cave Creek. He was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers for 35 years. Survivors besides his wife were three sons, F. Richard, Kenosha; A. Robert, Dearborn Heights, Mich.; and Major Samuel Kishline with the Air Force at Fairfax, Va.; a daughter, Mrs. Richard Koontz, Evansville, Ind.; and 11 grandchildren.
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(Condensed from Mac's Motor City Garage, Nov. 28, 2022:)
Secrets of the 1934-41 Graham Supercharger
With clever engineering, Graham successfully introduced supercharging to the mid-priced field and built more supercharged cars than anyone in the 1930s.
Brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham were successful entrepreneurs in a wide range of enterprises, from agriculture to glass to auto manufacturing—today we would call them venture capitalists. After selling their Graham Brothers Truck Company to Dodge Brothers and departing from Dodge senior management, they immediately reentered the auto industy in 1927, acquiring the Paige-Detroit Company and renaming it Graham-Paige. And from the beginning, the brothers decided the new brand would need special features to stand out among the vast herd of independent automakers.
One area where Graham chose to stand apart was in styling. Amos Northup was commissioned to design the trend-setting 1932 Graham Blue Streak and the striking sharknose 1938 Graham. For mechanical innovation, the brothers turned to their veteran assistant chief engineer, Floyd K. Kishline, who was working on one of the hot new trends in the auto industry at that moment: supercharging.
It so happened that Kishline was a friend of supercharger pioneer Louis Switzer, and he freely adopted the same general centrifugal blower layout Switzer-Cummins produced for Duesenberg and Auburn. But unlike the systems engineered for these more expensive cars, the Graham setup was cleverly engineered for bare minimum cost. Graham's cars were then priced in the $750-$1330 range, roughly in Oldsmobile territory.
Instead of costly precision ball bearings, Kishline used plain bushings to support the blower shaft, carefully sorting out their lubrication. He devised a novel cone worm gearbox to drive the blower from the back of the water pump, using a pair of flexible couplings to dampen torsional vibrations. In place of the usual (and expensive) machined blower impeller, he worked with Bohn Aluminum and Brass of Detroit to develop a low-cost cast aluminum impeller in a special alloy,saving untold dollars.
Delayed for a time by poor economic conditions, Kishline's ingenious blower setup was first used on the 1934 Supercharged Custom Eight
A very conventional L-head straight eight that displaced 265.4 cubic inches, it managed to produce 135 hp at 4,000 rpm as the supercharger both lifted and extended the power range. (Its slightly smaller, normally aspirated sibling was rated at 95 hp at 3400 rpm.) This was accomplished with a conservative 3.5 psi of boost, with the 7.5-inch impeller turning at 5.75 times engine speed or 23,000 rpm. While the blower added around $170 to the list price, the Supercharged Custom Eight was capable of nearly 90 mph.
When the straight eight was dropped for 1937, the supercharger assembly was transplanted to the company's L-head straight six engines. This required relocating the unit from the right side of the engine to the left and adding a belt drive, but otherwise the systems are similar. By this time Kishline was promoted to chief engineer, and he and his staff adapted the blower to both the 199.1 CID and 217.8 CID sixes. They were good for 106 hp and 116 hp, respectively. However, for 1938 the smaller six was discontinued.
In its ultimate 1941 tune, the Graham supercharged six was rated at 124 hp at 4,000 rpm, still from the same 217.6 cubic inches, with 185 lb-ft of torque at 2400 rpm. (That works out to 128 psi BMEP, very respectable for a prewar flathead six.) In its final appearance it powered the ill-conceived, Cord-bodied Graham Hollywood. While the final total is difficult to nail down with any precision, historians agree that in the years before World War II, Graham-Paige surely built more supercharged automobiles than anyone in the United States.
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